Bible Studies, Inspired by Faith and Science

1. What happened at Ai? 2. Who were the Gibeonites? 3. What happened when the sun stood still? 4. What have chariots got to do with Joseph’s tribe? 5. What happened at Shiloh? 6. What was a city of refuge? 7. Where was Gilead? 8. Why didn’t Egypt defend Canaan? 9. Who said “One man of you shall chase a thousand”? 10. What happened at Shechem? The tribes entering Canaan were just that, tribes, and the land they entered was governed by alliances of tribes, supposedly supported by Egypt, though Egyptian power was waning. Bible stories of how the land was conquered reveal a detailed and historically valuable account of tribal life and the lay of the land. Jericho provided a logical bridge-head for invasion, commanding important fertile ground and trade routes. Marching round the walls is a well-known military tactic, lulling defenders into false security; the walls may have fallen victim to invading force even as they tumbled down. Flush from this success, a small Israelite army...

Joshua: 1. Where does Joshua first appear in the Bible? 2. How close were Joshua and Moses? 3. What tribe was Joshua from? 4. What has a talking donkey got to do with Bible? 5. Did the Israelites kill all their enemies in the desert? 6. Where is Gilead? 7. What happened to Rahab the harlot? 8. How did the Israelites enter the Promised Land? 9. What happened at Jericho? 10. How many times did the Israelites cross water on dry land? Joshua (Hoshea), an Ephraimite (Num 11:28, 13:8, descendant of Joseph), first appears in the Bible when the Amalekites attack the Israelites on their way to Mount Sinai. Moses tells Joshua to lead the army (Ex 17:9). Later Joshua goes up Mount Sinai with Moses, and so is not involved in the golden calf incident (24:13). Moses leads the Israelites in the desert, handing leadership over to Joshua just before they cross the Red Sea into Canaan (Num 27:18). Their travels are plagued with rebellion, plague, thirst (back at Meribah near Mount Sinai, Num 20), poison...

Road to Canaan 1. What happened to Miriam? 2. What happened to Aaron? 3. What happened to Aaron’s sons? 4. How did Moses die? 5. Where did Moses die? 6. Who was Korah? 7. Why did the Israelites have to wander in the desert? 8. How many years did the Israelites spend in the desert? 9. Where were the Israelites when they were in the desert? 10. Who died in the desert? Moses’ sister Miriam saved his life when he was a baby, and became a prophetess among the Israelites. Her victory song after the Red Sea crossing is one of the earliest recorded psalms (Ex 15:20). She objected to Moses’ leadership, in particular to his being married to Gentile (Cushite) and his claiming a special relationship with God (Num 12:1-2). After being exposed to the cloud of God’s presense, her skin was white and she was banished for seven days as a leper. According to some traditions, she married Hur, one of the friends who held Moses’ hands during the battle with the Amalekites near Mount Sinai (Ex 17:...

Ten Commandments 1. How many plagues of Egypt were there? 2. How many good people in Sodom and Gomorrah would have been enough to save them? 3. How many horns did Daniel’s beast have? 4. Have many toes did Daniel’s statue have? 5. How many laws are there in the first five books of the Bible? 6. Why might Catholics and feminists number the ten commandments the same way? 7. How long did Moses stay up the mountain talking to God? 8. What was God telling Moses while the Israelites were making the golden calf? 9. What’s the significance of a golden calf? 10. What was the punishment for worshiping the calf? Ten appears frequently in the Bible. It’s the highest number we can count to just on our fingers. And it’s a good symbolic number, used to represent something countable, something limited, something belonging to mankind. There are people who said the world was approaching its end when the European Union reached ten members, because of Daniel’s statue (Dan 2:41). Possibly there were people...

Parting Seas and Manna in the Desert 1. How long did the plagues of Egypt last? 2. How many men were in the Exodus? 3. Did any Egyptians travel with the Israelites? 4. What did the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire look like? 5. How many bodies of water ran dry for the Israelites? 6. Why might the Red Sea be the Reedy Lake? 7. Where did the Red Sea crossing take place? 8. Where did Moses make bitter water sweet? 9. What did the Israelites eat and drink in the desert? 10. What did Mount Sinai look and sound like? The plagues of Egypt began with the red river in late summer and continued through to March or April of the next year, when the Exodus took place. Hailstorms would have left the desert with water and abundant plants, making this the only time of year such a large group of people could travel with their flocks. The Bible “counts” the people, giving a total of 603,550 men (Num 1:19-21)—so many they would easily outnumber any other army of the time though the Bible also says they...

Burning Bushes and Plagues of Frogs 1. How old was Moses when he returned to Egypt? 2. Where was the burning bush? 3. Can bushes burn without burning away? 4. Can sticks turn into snakes? 5. What did Moses and Aaron ask the Pharaoh to do? 6. What have red rivers, dead fish, and plagues of frogs got in common with each other? 7. Which plague was the first that the Egyptian magicians failed to copy? 8. Did God try to help the Egyptians at all? 9. Did the Egyptians try to help the Israelites at all? 10. If the Israelites fled across the Sinai peninsula, how long would it take to escape Egypt? The Bible says Moses was grown up (Ex 2:11) when he fled from Egypt and 80 (7:7) when he returned. A generation was about 25 years though it might be “estimated” at 40—a generic big number. 80 years could represent two generations, making Moses about 50 and Aaron 53. (When the Israelites are spend 40 years in the desert, 40 years is described as the same as "a generation": Num 32:13) Moses ...

Young Moses 1. Why were the Israelites in Egypt? 2. How long were the Israelites in Egypt? 3. Where did the Israelites live in Egypt? 4. How many Israelite midwives served the whole community? 5. Why wasn’t Aaron killed as a baby? 6. Why wasn’t Moses killed as a baby? 7. What was the name of Moses’ real mother? 8. What was the name of Moses’ foster-mother? 9. Why might Moses have written some of the books of the Old Testament? 10. Why did Moses run away? At the end of Genesis, God’s people are living in the hill-country of Goshen near the Nile delta, near the area where Rameses will later be built. They’re pretty isolated from other Egyptians, since they’re shepherds and shepherds are despised. They stayed there for 400 years (Ex 12:40) and probably consolidated their memories of the Genesis stories while telling them round the camp-fire. Other tribes may have added and expanded traditional stories in the retelling, but the Israelites believed their stories to be God’s word ...